Vehicle occupant restraint belt retractors have heretofore been provided with an inertia responsive pendulum or the like for moving a lockbar into engagement with a toothed ratchet plate attached to the belt reel so that the occupant is restrained in the seat. The locking engagement between the lockbar and the ratchet plate teeth is effectively maintained for as long as an occupant restraining load is imposed on the belt even though the inertia stimulus is terminated. When the load is removed from the belt a slight belt rewinding rotation by a windup spring permits gravity to disengage the lockbar from the ratchet plate.
It is known to use the aforedescribed seat belt retractor in a seat belt system of the type having one end of the belt connected to the vehicle door so that the belt will be automatically moved to an unrestraining position when the door is opened and return to the restraining position when the door is closed. It has been recognized as desirable to provide a buckle in the belt so that the belt can be disconnected to permit opening of the door. In the alternative, it has been recognized as desirable to provide a handle or the like which is manually operable to forcibly disengage the lockbar from the ratchet plate so that the belt may be unwound from the reel to permit opening movement of the door.
Copending patent application Ser. No. 044,753, Bernard J. Finn et al. filed June 1, 1979, provides a collapsible support means which normally supports the lockbar in proximity with the ratchet plate and for movement between locking and unlocking positions and is collapsible to withdraw the lockbar from engagement with the ratchet plate. More particularly, the copending application provides a pivotally mounted support link which pivotally mounts the lockbar in an over-center position with respect to the pivot of the support link for withstanding loads imposed on the reel and an operator actuable handle for pivoting the support link to move the lockbar axis over-center to a collapsed position disengaging the lockbar to permit free belt unwinding rotation of the reel.